There are many types of solid antiperspirant sticks that are commercially available or otherwise known in the antiperspirant art. Many of these products contain an antiperspirant active dispersed within a suitable liquid carrier and contained within a solid gellant or wax matrix that provides the product with sufficient hardness to form a solid antiperspirant stick. In addition to providing sufficient product hardness, the solid gellant or wax matrix also acts to contain the liquid carrier and any other liquid ingredients sufficiently to prevent syneresis of such liquids from the product form prior to application.
Wax gellants such as stearyl alcohol and other fatty alcohols are especially common in commercially available antiperspirant stick products. These waxes typically provide a stable solid matrix within which the antiperspirant active and a liquid carrier can be contained with minimal or no liquid syneresis during storage. Other gellants such as triglyceride gellants have also been used in solid antiperspirant sticks, due in large part to the lower raw material cost associated with the use of natural triglycerides. Many of these gellants, however, are used a relatively high concentrations to provide the antiperspirant stick with the desired product hardness, but such high gellant concentrations can also result in reduced antiperspirant efficacy and increased visible residue on the skin after application.
It has now been found that antiperspirant and deodorant sticks containing triglyceride gellants can be formulated with lower triglyceride gellant concentrations and still provide the antiperspirant and deodorant sticks with the desired product hardness. This is accomplished by formulating the stick composition with solid polymorphic triglycerides, wherein the polymorphic form of the gellant as formulated into the solid stick is substantially free of long range crystalline order. It has been found that by formulating these triglyceride gellants without long range crystalline order, that the product so formulated has improved product hardness at lower gellant concentrations. And because of the lower gellant concentrations, these antiperspirant and deodorant sticks can be applied to the skin with less visible residue and better antiperspirant efficacy.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a solid, antiperspirant and deodorant stick composition that contains reduced triglyceride gellant concentrations that provide the composition with improved product hardness and low residue performance. It is a further object of the present invention to formulate such a composition with a triglyceride gellant that is substantially free of long range crystalline order of the triglyceride gellant material.